Outside, the lovely ‘Drink and Admire’ fountain offers cool water to passers-by heading home through the alleyways or exhausted visitors who finally found their way out of the souks.

Marrakech’s legendary bazaar is home to 10 000 artisans, organised in 40 corporations, each one dedicated to a specific craft, babouche makers, embroiderers, wood turners, gold and silversmiths, potters, tanners, coppersmiths, weavers, carpet makers, ceramic painters, lantern decorators, whatever you dream of, you will find. Skeins of freshly-dyed wool hang across the lanes, donkey carts scrape past, laden with oranges or watermelons, mint tea flows out of silver pots to enhance bargaining and buying and selling never stops, punctuated by the distant tapping of hammers or the call of a ‘Blue Man’ peddling fossils from the Atlas. The air smells of lemon wood and warm bread baking in communal ovens.

When dusk falls over the city and the souks begin to relax, the neighbouring square of Djemaa el Fna comes into its own as makeshift kitchens set up tables and benches under the stars. Fires glow, smoke fills the air and the square is abuzz, chopping, stirring, frying, dishing out couscous and snails, lamb kebabs or bowls of steaming soup. Side stalls are awash with citrus fruit, cashews and almonds, Berber women shuffle in the shadows, offering flat Moroccan bread, silver bangles and medicinal herbs. Soon, the greatest free show on earth gets under way, acrobats, dancers, magicians, snake charmers, fortune tellers, water sellers and many more. Just like palaces and mosques, it is all part of the city’s UNESCO heritage and as drums echo late into the night, Marrakech casts an everlasting spell. No wonder the city gave its name to Morocco, the ‘Land of God’.

Mosques or shrines, the religious sites of Marrakech are too numerous to name but for lovers of architecture, a must-see is the Ben Youssef Medersa